Working mothers may have become commonplace in corporate America, but in business school, student moms are still in a class by themselves. Just ask Carla Small. "I went from being surrounded by other women trying to balance a job and family to being the only mother in the entire MBA Class of 1997 during my first year at HBS!" Small says.

Be it personally or professionally, the soft-spoken Small has been involved with family issues since her days as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where she was a peer counselor in an alcohol-abuse prevention program and a Big Sister volunteer. Ignoring the internal whispers telling her that her real love centered on children and families, however, she moved to Chicago and began a promising career as an advertising executive at Leo Burnett, Inc.

"It was a great experience," Small says, "but I wasn't passionate about it." Taking a side job as a counselor at a children's center confirmed her interest in family care but also made her realize that she preferred to approach the field "from a business angle." In 1988, she left Leo Burnett to follow her heart.

Small soon discovered the fast-growing field of corporate "work-life" services - company-sponsored programs to help employees and their families with personal needs ranging from substance-abuse counseling, to childcare, to elder care. Three months after leaving her advertising job, she landed a position as sales manager at Work/Family Directions, Inc., of Boston, a leading consultant to corporate clients wishing to develop such programs. After various positions in the firm's sales and strategic planning areas, she eventually became director of new product development.

"I loved creating new services for our clients - such as adoption planning, college advising, and disability counseling. We were the pioneers in a brand-new field," says Small, whose own family expanded three years ago, when she and her husband, Bob, had their son, Brendan. Eventually feeling the need for "a broader business perspective, more analytic skills, and more financial expertise," Small applied to HBS.

At Soldiers Field, Small indeed found the tools she had been looking for to advance her career - as well as a place where she could keep up her interest in family matters. An active member of the Women's Student Association, Small contributed significantly to the dialog on campus concerning issues such as declining female enrollment at business schools and the pressures of balancing work and family. "Women students would come to me for advice on career and lifestyle decisions," she says. "It felt good to be able to share my experiences."

Meanwhile, Small herself managed to juggle the demands of both graduate school and motherhood thanks in large part to her husband. "I could never have done it without Bob," says Small, who achieved academic honors in her first year at HBS. "As an MBA himself [Tuck '89], he anticipated my needs as a student; he also stepped up his involvement with our son's childcare - all while launching a new company!"

After graduation, Small plans to move into another family-related field: health care. "It's a complicated industry that increasingly appreciates a business perspective," she says. She will join Health Advances, Inc., a health-care consulting firm in Wellesley, Massachusetts, later this year. But first, in July, she will give birth to her second child.

Post a Comment